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Quantitative and Qualitative Examination of Particle-particle Interactions Using Colloidal Probe Nanoscopy
Published on: July 18, 2014
Colloidal particles in emulsions
1Institut fur Theoretische Physik II, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf, Germany.
Abstract:
We propose a statistical mechanical model for colloidal particles suspended in an emulsion of liquid droplets. The particles are modeled as hard spheres. The interaction between droplets is also hard, but the particles are able to penetrate the droplets. A swelling of droplets is taken into account to ensure material conservation of the droplet liquid. Hence the presence of the colloids generates droplet polydispersity. Using computer simulation and liquid state theory, we find that the relative polydispersity exhibits nonmonotonic behavior as a function of the particle packing fraction and can be traced back to hard sphere bulk density fluctuations.
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